Aleth - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

Aleth or quoted of Aleth (also written Alet ) was a Gallo-Roman fortified town, then a city with the Middle Ages and finally a fortress in the following centuries. It was built on a headland, on a peninsula of Saint-Servan, with the outlet of the Rance, vis-a-vis Saint-Malo.

Gallo-Roman period

As of the Neolithic , it was invested by the man. The Phéniciens approached there before gaining the Rance; they left a Hellenic cross carved in the rock with the Holy Father handle. They started to make trade between the area and the " large-île" (the Great Britain).

In 80 before our era, the Coriosolites, one of the five Celtic tribes occupying the Armorique, were established and built there a city from which they made their capital. The sea level at that time was at 8 meters in lower part of the current level.

The city will be occupied by the Romans who will slow down the expansion of this city promised however with a bright future. Alet disappeared to become Reginca , after the fire of the Romans. Stone constructions made their appearance. It was the seat of the Légion of Mars at the time Gallo-Roman. Roman fortifications, there remains nowadays only one section of wall dealing with the intramural city of Saint-Malo and some of the foundations of the enclosure of the Tour Solidor.

The Middle Ages

At the 5th century, the Romans gave up the city. It became again then the capital of Coriosolites but it was going to decline quickly and it is only in 575 that Tudunal undertakes its rectification and Alet will become principal defense against the invasion of the Francs in the area.

Destroyed at the 5th century by the Alains then by the Saxon , it was raised by Saint Maclou, which was going to give its name to the future city based on the rock small island of opposite, Saint-Malo. The Francs will plunder the city at the end of the 8th century, setting fire to dwellings and church. The city will be promoted with the row of évêché at the 9th century and will see the construction of a new church, the Saint-Pierre cathedral, on the same site as the old church.

Aleth and its area will undergo several raids of the Normands during 9th and 10th centuries. It will be occupied, its plundered cathedral and destroyed again. A new cathedral will be built on the site of old. They are the ruins of the latter which one can see nowadays, of the excavations undertaken in 1972 having updated the whole of its foundations.

To protect itself from these raids with repetition, much of the inhabitants of the peninsula of Aleth had taken refuge on the rock of Saint-Malo, located opposite and easier to defend. This small island did not shelter whereas a small monastic community. This new city will supplant the city of Alet gradually and, to the 11th century, évêché there will be transferred. A change of the topography of the estuary of Rancid is also at the origin of the decline of Aleth. A progressive rise of water of a few meters during the centuries reduced considerably the benches of stranding in front of Solidor, benches of which the boats were used for to discharge their goods whereas, in same time, the mudholes which separated Aleth of the small island of Malo Saint were found immersed with high tide, allowing the creation of a port for the new city inhabitant of Saint Malo.

In 1255, the city of Aleth carried out by Guillaume of Mottay, revolted against the increasing domination of the new city and the taxes which it required. But they were overcome by the Inhabitants of Saint Malo, associated for the occasion with the royal troops. The walls of the city will then be cut down and the castle of Oreigle, on the current site of the Tour Solidor will be shaven. Symbol of the new domination inhabitant of Saint Malo, the roof of the cathedral of Aleth will be dismounted.

The disappearance of the sand isthmus which emerged with low tide between Cézembre and Saint-Malo, probably due to the violent one earthquake which shook Brittany and all the continental coast of the English Channel as far as Holland in 1427, modified also the accesses to the two cities, the profit of the city inhabitant of Saint Malo.

The fortress

At the end of the XVIIe century, the place, from now on known under the name of city of Aleth, is equipped with a small battery to protect the entry from the Rancid one. Vauban, then general inspector of the fortifications of the king, informs the Inhabitants of Saint Malo that the lack of fortifications on this height makes run a risk to the city: “ Strengthen to me these heights out-beyond, a few days, twenty mortars will put to you in ashes ”. But it will be necessary to await several English incursions so that a real fortification of the city of Aleth is made. In 1759, the chief engineer of the city inhabitant of Saint Malo, the Mazin knight, built large extremely of artillery able to defend Saint-Malo, its port, the access to Rancid and the back-country (current Saint-Servan). It is this fort which is still visible today.

The end of the conflicts with England will bring to its progressive abandonment.

Second world war

During the Occupation and for its strategic position in the defense of the zone, the Germans will strengthen the old city again, truffant the basement of a network of more than galleries and casemates, connected to various blockhouses and turrets of artillery, laid out all around the peninsula. the fort becomes the center of the Germans called the " then; saint-Malo" fortress; , a whole of fortifications all around the city, on the island of Cézembre, of the point of Varde, Saint-Ideuc, the mountain Joseph Saint and various lines of defense in the Close-Chicken or the other islands neighborhood. From 1942 to 1944, will be thus built in the old one extremely, an artillery battery with 4 guns, anti-aircraft batteries, a headquarters of the whole of the fortifications of Saint-Malo, quarterings for more than 200 men and various stations of protection (casemates and machine-guns, shelter for mortars, etc). The whole is connected by more than 1.300 meters of underground galleries leading to the 32 blockhouses and the 8 armor-plated bells of shooting which girdles the fort. It is since this military base that colonel Von Aulock ordered the " saint-Malo" fortress;.

After the Unloading of Normandy in June, the Allies penetrate in Brittany on July 31st. August 4th, they block all the accesses to the zone of Saint-Malo. Only the 83e division of American infantry reinforced with a few units of other divisions to the responsibility of release the city. Indeed most of the American units of the 3rd army of Patton received order to make movement towards the east to try to take with reverse large German forces still present in Normandy (see Poche of Cliff).

Also the Americans it will call largely with the air raid and the artillery shootings to come to end from the fortification. It is only after 2 attacks of infantry, very murderers at the Allies and more than 8 days of ramming which colonel Van Aulock agrees to capitulate, the August 17th 1944.

The current site

Nowadays, the site became a tourist place. A museum, memorial 39-45 built by the town of Saint-Malo in the blockhouse of the anti-aircraft defense recalls the period of the Occupation, the German fortifications and the release of the city. A walk making it tower of the city and offering a panorama on Solidor, the estuary of the Rancid , Dinard, the Cape Fréhel, the old city of Saint-Malo was arranged. In the Sixties, pines were planted, making the site less austere and a camp-site of summer was arranged on the southern part of the peninsula. At side, with beginning of the year 70, archaeological excavations released the whole of the foundations of the old church of Aleth.

The historian and French academician Louis Duchesne resided in the city of Aleth, in an old body of guard of the bastion built by Vauban. Until 1922, date of its death, it remained each summer there, resting its load of French principal of Rome, bathing as a sportsman achieved in the small Holy Father harbor. First president of the Company of history and archeology of Saint-Malo, it in particular wrote on the origin of this city. He had as a close relation neighbor Suzy Solidor.

External bonds

Historical of Aleth (infoBretagne.com)

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